Summary: The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the testimony of how God restored sinful man through His Son Jesus Christ.

1. Illustration: "The Bible...is the one supreme source of revelation of the meaning of life, the nature of God and spiritual nature and needs of men. It is the only guide of life which really leads the spirit in the way of peace and salvation. America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scripture." --Woodrow Wilson

2. The Bible is the most reliable book you will ever read because:

a. You can trust the testimony of Scripture.

b. You can trust who the testimony of who Scripture is about.

c. You can trust what Scripture does.

Proposition: The entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is the testimony of how God restored sinful man through His Son Jesus Christ.

Transition: First...

I. You Can Trust the Testimony of Scripture (1)

A. From the Beginning

1. John begins this letter by referring to "That which was from the beginning..."

a. By observing the rest of the paragraph we can see that it wasn’t a "that" which he was talking about, but rather a who.

b. The opening of this letter is every reminiscient of the opening of his gospel when he says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

c. It is clear that John is referring to the person of Jesus Christ.

2. Why can we trust what John says about Jesus? John tells us we can trust what he says about Jesus because He is the one "which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled..."

a. Some people in John’s time were doubting the testimony that he and the other apostles had given about Jesus.

b. However, their testimony was reliable because they had heard him with their ears, seen him with their eyes, and touched him with their hands.

c. His testimony could be trusted because he was there!

3. Notice that John’s words are emphatic: "we HAVE heard...we HAVE seem...our hands HAVE handled."

a. He leaves no doubt that he was an eyewitness to Jesus coming to earth in the flesh.

b. He was there when Jesus did miracles.

c. He was there when Jesus healed the lame, deaf, and blind.

d. He was there when Jesus raised people from the dead.

e. He was there when Jesus died, and was there to see him alive again when he rose from the grave.

4. Notice also that John’s words are in the perfect tense.

a. The words and deeds of Jesus, though witnessed these many years ago are still present with the writer. - New International Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM

b. His testimony is reliable, and the effect of Jesus on his life was still fresh.

5. He says that his testimony is "concerning the Word of life."

a. John’s use of the Word is a good title for the Son who both created the universe with God and then came to earth to be the perfect expression of God to humanity.

b. Not only is Jesus Christ "the Word," he is the Word of life--of spiritual life.

c. People may be physically alive but spiritually dead. Jesus, however, as the express image of God himself, gives both spiritual life and eternal life to all who believe in him.

B. Eye Witness Accounts

1. Illustration: What if we had each person that witnessed the resurrected Lord come up here this morning and talk for 15 minutes giving a testimony to what they saw.

If we listened to the testimony of all the people that Jesus appeared to, we would be here all day, and all night, and Monday and Monday night and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and sometime early Friday morning they would just be wrapping up the testimony.

It would take over 128 strait hours just to hear, for 15 minutes each, the testimony of those that saw the Lord after he rose.

2. We can trust the Bible because those who wrote its words were there, and the words they wrote are true.

3. We can trust the Bible because the things written in it are not:

a. Made up

b. Thought up

c. Conjured up

4. We can trust the Bible because it was written by trustworthy men. They gave up:

a. Their jobs

b. Their families

c. Their friends, and

d. Their lives to defend it

5. The Bible is not a book of myths or stories, but it is the word of God about the Word of God.